bad words cleansed

[Larry Gorbet]

peterson <peterson at aucegypt.edu> wrote

>We use several word for this, primarily idiom or cliche.  At some point, most
>idiomatic expressions were creative bits of language play, metaphorically or
>metonymically linking various domains of meaning.  As the expression enters
>into general circulation, it loses its original significance.  It remains,
>however, difficult to translate.
>
>Mark Allen Peterson
>
>>===== Original Message From Robert Lawless <robert.lawless at wichita.edu> =====
>>It is so exciting to hear from professional linguists. I have another
>>question that i suppose is linguistic. The other day I overheard the
>>teacher of my first-grade twin sons use the word "brown-nosing" in class.
>>After class I asked her whether she was aware of the origin of the phrase.
>>Of course, she wasn't. When I told her, she was horrified. How common is it
>>for bad words to be cleansed so that people use them with no knowledge of
>>their origins as pejorative comments? Is there a particular linguistic
>>label for this? Robert.

Cliche has very little to do with this. A cliche may perfectly well
be quite literal  (e.g. "vicious rumor", "frivolous remark" (cf.
"vicious libel", "frivolous joke", which are less cliches but
nonetheless English, and with the modifiers having essentially the
same meaning as in the cliches).

And certainly many expressions that most linguists (and most ordinary
English users) would call idioms have rather transparent origins. For
a person to "lose steam" is idiomatic, but it is also rather
transparently related to the loss of power of steam-powered
locomotives when climbing a difficult hill. To "nose around" is
idiomatic but is similarly transparent in origin.

The term that Robert is seeking is one I don't know if it exists. The
essence is that a term acquires a new meaning as an extension (via
metaphor or otherwise) from a taboo or pejorative source and then the
relation between the source and the extension gets lost, but I don't
know a term for a semantic extension that has, for most speakers,
lost its relation to its source --- regardless of the nature of the
source. For example, "fall" (autumn) is not usually noticed as
related to "fall" (event of falling). Nor have people connected
"private" (military rank) to "private" (adj. contrasting with
"public").

- Larry

--
Larry Gorbet                         lgorbet at unm.edu
Anthropology & Linguistics Depts.    (505) 883-7378
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM, U.S.A.